Haka/Maori/NZ

[beefeater33]

Yesterday’s burial of Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII and the succession of Te Arikinui Kuini Nga Wai Te Hono I Te Po displayed incredible examples of haka and other Māori performaning arts and traditions.

I doubt that I will see a tangi of this magnitude again in my lifetime. The whole video is worth a watch, even just playing in the background.

I’m hesitant to post this on this forum, but I thought I would for those of you who are genuinely interested in Māori culture and may not of had the chance to see this elsewhere. If it’s not your cup of tea, no worries, just move on

Kia tuuturu te kotahitanga

Thanks for sharing this! I’m just a yank here in Ohio USA………It’s wonderful to see deep culture……
Here we’re a relatively young country and and the old saying goes “a melting pot “……..

 

[jpmcwjr]

Thanks for posting that; it was moving and powerful. What a gentle language, too.

 

[JoburgB2]

Ach! Rubbish! NZ big bunch of girl’s blouses! Go do your silly cheerleader song and dance routine back in the shed. Go Bokke! Die Manne!

 

[MisterBadger]

<SNIP>

Anyway, It seems the Kiwis do the haka not just in contests but for everything else: welcoming foreign dignitaries, greeting elders, weddings, funerals, retirement send-offs, etc. I assume they have different hakas for those.

@mingc - They do. Back in the 1980s, when I was working with the Royal Navy at the Vosper Thorneycroft shipyard on the recommissioning of one of our old Type 81 Leander Class frigates, HMS DIDO, to the New Zealand Navy as HMNZS SOUTHLAND, the handover ceremony consisted of all the Maori members of the receiving crew, in traditional dress (basically a straw skirt, a feather or two and some paint - with a wicked east wind whipping through the quayside across Southampton Water - hard as nails, those lads - and armed with war clubs, dancing a kind of haka in which they serially approached the NZ High Commissioner, as he stood rigidly to attention in full dress uniform, and each dancer came up to him one by one, yelling, grimacing and pulling a swung club to halt in midair just an inch or two from his head (the protocol is not to flinch), and then, when they withdrew, the senior Maori crewman placed a dagger at his feet. How you pick up the dagger signifies whether there will be war or peace between you and them. There was peace, the Maoris changed back into Navy rig and we all repaired to the shipyard offices for a few drinks

 

[JoburgB2]

@mingc - They do. Back in the 1980s, when I was working with the Royal Navy at the Vosper Thorneycroft shipyard on the recommissioning of one of our old Type 81 Leander Class frigates, HMS DIDO, to the New Zealand Navy as HMNZS SOUTHLAND, the handover ceremony consisted of all the Maori members of the receiving crew, in traditional dress (basically a straw skirt, a feather or two and some paint - with a wicked east wind whipping through the quayside across Southampton Water - hard as nails, those lads - and armed with war clubs, dancing a kind of haka in which they serially approached the NZ High Commissioner, as he stood rigidly to attention in full dress uniform, and each dancer came up to him one by one, yelling, grimacing and pulling a swung club to halt in midair just an inch or two from his head (the protocol is not to flinch), and then, when they withdrew, the senior Maori crewman placed a dagger at his feet. How you pick up the dagger signifies whether there will be war or peace between you and them. There was peace, the Maoris changed back into Navy rig and we all repaired to the shipyard offices for a few drinks

Vivid memory, no doubt. Nice story!

 

[occidentalist]

They look like they're on bath salts. Not sure if it's supposed to be fearsome coming from a culture that was so easily conquered.

 

[MisterBadger]

They look like they're on bath salts. Not sure if it's supposed to be fearsome coming from a culture that was so easily conquered.

Not as easily as all that. The conflicts lasted about as long as those with the Sioux/Lakota. At the height of it all, about 4,000 Maori warriors kept 18,000 British troops occupied, which isn't a bad effort considering what they, and we, were armed with, respectively...

New Zealand Wars - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Brendan]

They look like they're on bath salts. Not sure if it's supposed to be fearsome coming from a culture that was so easily conquered.

Easy for you to say, as I'm sure you've 'conquered' plenty of cultures in your time

Wanker

 

[jpmcwjr]

Enough already!